WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Haruto

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ The Dark Fantasy Doctor Was Mistaken for a Saint ◈

Chapter 17: The Protagonist Is Always Busy (2)

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After the meal, we got into the limousine.

Eri sat by the window without saying a word.

Just a little while ago, she had been wolfing down lobster like she was at war. Now, she only stared blankly out the window.

‘Is she sleepy because she’s full? Or...?’

Her profile felt strangely familiar.

I felt like I had seen that expression somewhere in my past life.

‘Who was it? One of the residents...?’

As I tried to guess what was going on with Erika, I looked out the window across from her.

The limousine left Civitas Square and began climbing toward Sanctum Hill.

* * *

At that moment, Erika’s mind was in turmoil.

She had woken up in a noble’s annex,

watched a transaction involving an absurd amount of money,

and filled her stomach with an abundance she had never even imagined.

Everything she had experienced that day felt like a dream.

But in that dreamlike place, the head butler’s questions about “qualification” had been enough to bring her back to reality.

‘...I think I understand why Uncle Tao acted that way now.’

The undisputed ruler of the Red-Light District, Wangcho, Tao Chen.

You could not conquer that place through sheer strength alone.

That place, where those at the bottom gathered, was always filled with malice beyond imagination.

To become the owner of a street like the Red-Light District meant possessing the dignity and malice to match.

That was why Erika knew.

She knew how cunning, calculating, and, when needed, cruel that uncle could be, despite always grinning foolishly in front of Julian.

And the people of the Red-Light District remembered.

They remembered the story Wangcho had spread as a warning during the height of the blizzard.

* * *

That winter, when the snowstorm was at its worst,

a mid-ranking lieutenant of the Scarred Hyenas was caught secretly diverting drugs and selling them in Smoke Alley.

The problem was that the drugs he had touched happened to be another organization’s business.

In Limbus Pit, each street boss’s territory was divided by their respective livelihoods.

Wangcho’s Scarred Hyenas controlled prostitution and slaughterhouse work, which was why they ruled the Red-Light District.

Drugs belonged to the organization in Smoke Alley.

Touch another person’s livelihood, and you lose a wrist.

That was the rule of this sewer.

In that sense, the lieutenant’s actions could have led to a war with Smoke Alley.

But Wangcho did not reprimand him.

Instead, he invited the lieutenant to dinner.

Near the end of the banquet, Wangcho chewed the last piece of meat and spoke casually.

“I can understand why you got involved in that drug business. People get greedy sometimes. I do too.”

Wangcho wiped his mouth with a napkin.

“I’ve settled things with the owner of Smoke Alley. It won’t become a major problem.”

Color returned to the lieutenant’s face.

Relief flashed across it.

He had survived.

But that was where Wangcho’s kindness ended.

“But I hear you were planning to sell that drug to children?”

“Pardon? W-Well, children carry quite a bit of loose change... I thought if I sold it cheaply and got them addicted, they’d become long-term customers. And besides, back in the old days...”

“Haah.”

Wangcho interrupted him with a deep sigh.

It was a sigh mixed with irritation.

“Listen. There’s a blizzard outside right now. Do you know who comes back once the snow stops?”

“W-Who...?”

“...Tch. You don’t need to know. There’s no reason for you to know.”

Irritation entered Wangcho’s once-kind voice.

Holding his knife in a reverse grip, he scraped the table with it in annoyance.

“Then do you remember the rule I changed last year? Which rule was it?”

“From now on... we... would not make children work in brothels... Even if it was only menial work...”

“Did you ever think about why I made that rule?”

“...”

“Think about it! Why do you think I made that rule? Huh? In the territory I manage! If that person sees children drugged out of their minds and drooling all over themselves... Huh? Huh! Huh?!”

“...”

“Are you desperate to get me killed?!”

Thwack!

Wangcho’s knife plunged into the back of the lieutenant’s hand.

“...!”

“Take him away!”

Before the lieutenant could even scream, he was dragged away with the knife still lodged in his hand.

The next day,

the man was found hanging upside down at the entrance to the slaughterhouse.

Flesh had been stripped from him equal to the weight of the gold coins he had earned by selling drugs to children.

And a few days later,

as soon as the blizzard stopped, his body was not even buried. It was fed straight into the gears.

The pieces were washed into the sewers, leaving not even a gravestone behind.

From that day on, one absolute rule was carved into the minds of Limbus Pit’s people.

Do not touch children.

Not with drugs, not with anything.

* * *

Erika knew that rule very well.

It was the rule that had saved the life of the girl called a vampire’s illegitimate child.

The lieutenant had simply been stupid. The people of the Red-Light District understood the meaning behind the rule that children were not made to work in brothels.

Whatever happened, do not touch children.

That was why people considered Erika ominous, yet never did more than strike her.

Were they afraid of a vampire’s revenge?

No.

They were afraid of the Red-Light District’s owner becoming angry.

And beyond that, they feared the unknown “person” whom the Red-Light District’s owner feared.

Thanks to that, Erika, who had lived in hiding, had at least been able to move around at night since a year ago.

But Erika herself knew nothing about the person protecting her.

Not until a few days ago.

‘So it was you, Doctor.’

Only now did Erika feel every piece falling into place.

Wangcho had not changed the rule.

Director Schnabel had made it, and Wangcho had merely obeyed it.

Why?

It could not be only because Director Schnabel was an important customer who used Wangcho’s slaughterhouse.

‘With the Doctor’s daily income...’

Someone like him could easily buy Wangcho’s life.

‘No, he wouldn’t even need to buy it.’

If a noble hunted poor people, it would end with a few coins in fines.

No matter how much Wangcho ruled the Red-Light District, to a Sanctum Hill noble, he was no more than an ant crawling past.

A dog does not need to question the food placed in its bowl.

Erika finally understood the meaning of Wangcho’s oft-repeated words.

As long as you stayed beside him and breathed, honey would drip down for you.

But if you grew greedy for no reason, you might become a John Doe floating through the sewers the next day.

She finally understood why a man as cruel as Tao Chen acted like a puppy rolling over and exposing its belly before this man.

Loyalty was born from fear.

Only after understanding that did her broken sense of reality begin to return.

‘Someone like him made me his assistant?’

A chill ran down her spine.

At first, she had thought he was a lifeline.

A rope that could pull her out of the gutter.

But now, that rope looked like a gallows.

‘Then where am I right now?’

Erika looked down at her hands.

A sense of superiority from suddenly receiving power?

That was something you could only feel once you knew how to wield that power properly.

This was like telling a child to swing a greatsword.

And if she swung that greatsword wrong, it could split her own body in two.

‘If I make a mistake, then just like Wangcho did, this person might...’

There was an old saying.

A rope braided from gold is good for hanging yourself too.

It was the saying that best described her situation.

The rope lifting her up had the perfect shape to put around her neck.

And if that saying was true, the price of her mistake might not end at a slaughterhouse.

No, it could be far worse.

The higher you flew, the more terrible an end awaited you.

Her breath caught amid such thoughts.

“You’ll get indigestion.”

Julian’s voice suddenly entered her thoughts.

Erika’s heart dropped as she jerked her head around.

“W-What?”

“Why are you suddenly speaking formally?”

“I-I’ll only do it for today. So what is it?”

“...You looked unwell. I thought you had eaten too quickly.”

Julian rested his chin against the window frame without much interest.

“Eat slowly next time. The food isn’t going anywhere.”

A shiver ran down Erika’s spine.

The words Wangcho had supposedly said to the purged lieutenant echoed in her ears.

[People get greedy sometimes.]

She had greedily devoured lobster without knowing her place.

Had this man seen that ugly appetite as greed unfitting of a noble?

Erika hurriedly lowered her head.

“...I-I’m sorry. I won’t... get greedy again.”

“...You don’t need to react that strongly.”

Erika answered in a fading voice.

Julian’s response did not reach her ears.

No, even that ordinary response sounded like a warning that she did not belong in this world.

And fear that she could be discarded at any time squeezed her heart.

That was when Julian unexpectedly intruded into her thoughts again.

“Now that I think about it, I was like that once too.”

“Pardon...?”

Julian’s gaze remained fixed outside the window.

The gas lamps of Sanctum Hill began to light up one by one.

Their gentle glow cast shadows across Julian’s face.

“I’m an adopted son of this house. It isn’t like that now, but there was a time when I was considered an unwanted presence in the family.”

Erika’s eyes widened.

She had never imagined it.

From the way he was treated at the estate and the head butler’s attitude at the restaurant, she had assumed he was a biological child.

“Everyone else laughed and chatted elegantly, but I felt like I was floating apart from them. Like someone could replace me at any moment.”

Julian gave a faint laugh and turned toward Erika.

“When I first rode in a luxury car like this, I felt like I couldn’t breathe either.”

“Y-You had an experience like that too, Doctor?”

“Of course. How could I not understand the sorrow of an outsider who rolled in from nowhere?”

Julian shrugged.

There was a playful yet somehow bitter light in his gray eyes.

“When you feel that way, you need someone to tell you why you belong there.”

“...”

Julian tapped the window frame with his finger.

“If you don’t know why you’re somewhere, you get tired quickly. You wear yourself away watching everyone else’s reactions.”

Erika bit her lip.

That was exactly how she felt now.

“So let’s make this clear.”

Julian’s half-lidded eyes looked at Erika.

They were warm, yet held a trace of longing.

“Why do you think you became my assistant?”

“Um... Because I can sense that strange energy inside people?”

“That’s right. That is one reason.”

Julian nodded.

He held up one finger, then a second.

“But there’s another reason. You survived in Limbus Pit.”

“Why does that...?”

“When you’re only in high places, you can’t see what’s beneath your feet.”

“...”

“If you don’t know what is beneath your feet, you’ll slip someday.”

Julian let out a small yawn.

“I’m the sort who needs to know exactly where I’m standing before I can relax.”

Erika considered his words.

Looking beneath your feet. She understood that.

But why did it have to be her?

“...Is that why you need me?”

Erika herself was surprised by the words that came out.

Julian turned his head.

His half-closed eyes looked at her.

“If you want to see beneath your feet, you need eyes that grew up there.”

Julian answered in an even voice.

“Eyes raised in Sanctum Hill cannot see Limbus Pit. Wangcho is the same. He has already climbed too high.”

Julian looked out the window again.

“But you’re different. You survived there.”

Erika stared at him blankly.

The fact that she had grown up there.

The fact that she had survived by licking blood from the slaughterhouse floor.

The fact that she had spent nights trembling beside rat fires.

Did all those shameful memories hold value for this person?

“...Are they useful?”

“Of course they are.”

Julian gave a faint smile.

“Our clinic can’t function without you anymore. And you have plenty of value on your own. You found malaria in our last patient. Do you think Wangcho could have done that?”

Erika could not answer.

Something hot rose from deep within her chest.

Until now, her existence had always been a curse.

A vampire’s illegitimate child. A monster that craved blood. Something filthy.

Something that should not exist. Something that should disappear.

But this person denied all of it.

He said it was not an illness, but a talent.

He said he needed her, not out of pity or sympathy.

‘Ah.’

Only then did she understand what the old butler had meant.

It had not been a test of her qualifications.

[If the clothes are too large, you simply grow into them.]

[You only need to work until you suit them.]

It meant it was all right if she did not fit in yet.

It meant she only had to work until she did.

And it also meant she had the right to make that effort.

“...All right.”

Erika spoke softly.

“I just need to watch what’s beneath your feet for you.”

Julian looked at her for a moment.

Then he shrugged.

“Right. So I’ll give you your second assignment.”

Julian pointed at her.

“Don’t suddenly start speaking formally and walking on eggshells around me. What I want is a partner, not a servant.”

Erika’s heart began to pound.

She had been acknowledged.

This overwhelming person had deemed someone like her, who possessed nothing, worthy.

The weight of it was so heavy, yet so warm, that Erika unconsciously bit down hard on her lip.

“...Yes, no, all right.”

Erika forced herself to use her usual way of speaking.

She could not hide the slight tremble at the end of her voice, but she could fix that over time.

“If you fall, I’ll be the first to catch you. I know the ground of Limbus Pit even with my eyes closed.”

“Good. That’s nice to hear.”

Julian smiled faintly.

Then he leaned against the window, closed his eyes, and muttered quietly.

“Whenever you doubt why you’re here, tell me. I’ll remind you whenever you need it.”

Before long, Julian folded his arms and tried to sleep.

Silence settled inside the limousine.

Erika quietly looked out the window.

The distant sky above the smog was still too unimaginable.

She did not know whether she was allowed to fly anywhere near such a place.

She knew even less whether she was allowed to desire it.

But she was no longer afraid.

She thought she finally understood what this man wanted from her.

The moment she could understand, and felt understood, it was no longer something to fear.

* * *

As post-meal drowsiness closed in, I dozed in the car and thought,

‘Why is she worrying over something like that?’

I thought Eri was feeling intimidated, but when I spoke to her, she really was.

No wonder she had not been eating properly, unlike when we first entered the buffet.

‘So that’s where I’d seen it before.’

It was exactly like the symptoms I had experienced as a medical student and resident.

We called it high-altitude sickness as slang. It happened when the world you lived in suddenly changed.

Not that your world literally changed. You simply felt intimidated because everyone around you was so accomplished.

Especially when I joined that crowd right after finishing the college entrance exam, I felt incredibly insignificant.

‘Or was that just me?’

Maybe I felt it more strongly because I had grown up poor.

And when those thoughts got worse, they became a condition called imposter syndrome.

It was especially common among residents and graduate students.

Who am I? Where am I?

That roughly summed it up.

You became anxious because you felt you were fooling everyone, convinced that people valued you more highly than you deserved.

‘Then you start wanting to run away before you make some huge mistake and your abilities are exposed.’

There was a reason protagonists in misunderstanding stories always tried to escape.

If imposter syndrome was not dealt with properly, it became a vicious cycle.

Everyone else seemed capable and efficient, while you, the protagonist of a misunderstanding story surviving on nothing but luck, felt like you could never do the same.

You did not trust your own ability, so you made more mistakes no matter what you did.

Then you put in unnecessary effort, lowering your work efficiency instead.

Eventually, burnout arrived, and you started avoiding your work.

‘There was even a resident who ran away because of that.’

When I was a fellow in my previous life, a resident joined the surgery department.

He thought he had only gotten into surgery through luck, and his mistakes gradually increased.

Seeing him reminded me of my own early days, so I often looked after him.

Then one day, what do you know? That bastard ran away without even contacting anyone.

I vividly remembered chasing him all the way to Tsushima Island, buying him sushi there, and putting him back in the operating room.

Chunsik.

Are you still alive and well?

...Come to think of it, I must have looked like a mage tower master trying to put a leash on him.

Wow! Chunsik’s misunderstanding story! The End!

Enough of that.

‘Sigh. It’s not like I can chase someone down here too.’

Maybe the original Erika had an escape event.

But I did not want to experience that.

I only wanted to take advantage of the good parts of a misunderstanding story, not recreate the original plot.

And to do that, I needed to constantly remind Erika that she was here because of her ability, not luck.

In other words, if Joker, Batman, and Two-Face lived next door, someone had to keep telling you that you were at least Scarecrow.

‘Eri. You’re that good.’

You were as valuable as insulin, colchicine, and quinine.

Mage talent was not that common.

You were roughly as valuable as a hospital’s latest MRI machine.

That was why I could not understand Erika’s reaction.

‘Well, I get it if this is just a trait of misunderstanding stories.’

A classic misunderstanding-story trait.

There was always an unpolished gem nearby who underestimated their own worth.

That sort of character existed so the protagonist could discover them and coast through life.

If I thought of it that way, giving her this much lip service was no trouble at all.

Was it not a protagonist’s duty to cut a rough gem into a jewel?

‘She was so intimidated today that she barely ate anything.’

Next time, I decided to take her to another buffet and make sure she ate as much as she wanted.

Or maybe I could rent out an entire restaurant so she could eat without worrying about anyone watching.

* * *

Before long, the limousine engine’s vibrations softened.

When the car stopped, Erika, who had given herself over to a brief nap, opened her eyes.

A magnificent estate stood before her.

The limousine door opened.

Julian got out first, and Erika followed behind him.

As she followed Julian toward the estate, she muttered quietly,

“...Thank you.”

Julian did not hear her.

Even if he had, he would have brushed it off.

That night,

Erika slept without nightmares for the first time in the annex.

The down blanket was absurdly soft.

Footnotes:

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